Subwoods
by Starry's Light
Summary: Let's return to the frontier, shall we? A number of spontaneous stories grounded in character development featuring the cast of Fossil Fighters: Frontier. Takes lots of ideas from Backwoods, its sort-of prequel, but you don't have to read Backwoods to understand Subwoods because there are little summaries provided each chapter. T for foul language and some bloody vivosaur fights.


**Hello! Welcome to Subwoods. It is based off of the pre-existing character developments that I created in my crazy story Backwoods, which is about Fossil Fighters: Frontier except it really goes off the walls. Anyways you don't have to read Backwoods in order to understand Subwoods, but if For Some Reason you Reaaaaally want an excuse to read some Fossil Fighters fanfiction, then maybe give Backwoods a try. It's a lot of stupid fun.  
Also, it's all spontaneous updates, so don't expect things haha.**

**Some basics for this little crazy series. I call the three Warden worlds by Regis (Asia), Ilum (America), and Midell (Europe). Long story shorter, I don't like connecting Fossil Fighters to the Real World, so I go out of my way to eliminate those connections. Also, even though he doesn't show up in this chapter (he will obligatorily be in some but not all chapters), my stupid little Frontier main character's name is Torner. He is 14, he is a loser, and that is really all you need to know. Also he has a lythro named Lysandre. She is his only voice of reason.**

**I'll also add a small summary before each chapter, since some of them are gonna take place in wildly different scenarios and I get the feeling that a little explanation per chapter will do confused readers some good. So here's this chapter's scenario:  
Sasuke recently broke both of his wrists during the final battle. He needs help, and in this utterly vulnerable state, he goes to the woman he wants to be with rather than the ones he pretends to love. Will she accept him now that he's found the strength to face her with his true feelings?**

Subwoods

1: To Lust for Love

Sasuke had had the wonderful misfortune of breaking both of his wrists in the recent past due to his shady work, and so he had to use his face to knock on the door in front of him. It hurt, but he had little other options. He only realized after face-planting the door that he could've kicked it. That about sums up Sasuke's level of intelligence.

His eyes widen when the door cracks marginally outwards, and he calls through the gap "PLEASE DON'T CLOSE THE DOOR ON ME." Immediately the door is slammed shut and Sasuke's pale, twisted mouth tightens. "_Fuck_." He glares into the wooden atrocity now blocking him from his one and only remaining hope, and he releases a long, pent-up groan.

"Sapphire. Please." He winces as his face relaxes and the throbbing headache blossoms where he cracked his skull against the goddamn door. "_Please_. Let me in. I need help. You know I need help."

At first there's nothing. This is the point in which Sasuke should leave, except he's a hopeful little fucker, so he doesn't. His white hair lays matted about his head, hard to comb with two broken wrists. His ninja garb has been replaced with one of those hospital gowns because, as one might expect, two broken wrists make it rather hard to change one's clothes. Even the scarf around his face has gone missing, and his naked pale lips taste the air devoid of a filter.

His miserable arms are wrapped up in casts, and each has been dumped into a sling, hoisting his hands above the heart like the bitchass doctor said. He just hopes that Sapphire will think about this unfortunate scenario and give him _one_ chance.

One minute morphs into five; five, into ten. To the nonexistent sound of Sasuke walking away, the door cracks open once again. Sapphire's oval face cringes at the sight of him. Her cropped sky blue hair balances delicately about her face, and even though she hasn't washed it, she is still somehow captivating. "Not gonna be leaving anytime soon, are you?"

"Sapphire _please_. I don't know why you're so certain I'm gonna fuck us up. We haven't even tried dating." He swallows. "Yet," he nervously adds, like it means something.

Sapphire's face boils red. "_Yet_, you ass? You can't say that with such certainty." Her sharp blue brows furrow, and she mutters, "Why would I even date someone as big of an ass as you..."

"Because I..." Sasuke's pale face captures all the heat in his body. "Because I fucking _like_ you. Because you're really cool, and also really nice, and also fucking hot, and, uh... yeah."

"Yeah, huh?" She rolls her eyes, dark and alluring as her namesake. "Do you say that to all the big-breasted ladies you acquaint yourself with?" She lets out a long sigh. "You just think I'll be all over you because you grace me with your presence? What if _I_ don't like you?" Still her eyes waver, uncertain, as she takes in the sudden onslaught of compliments.  
She is not used to this kind of attention, and she can't quite bring herself to close the door on it once again. Her face lies dormant, brooding.

Then Sasuke breaks into her reverie. "Torner said you like me."

She opens and then closes her mouth. Promptly she growls, "That little _bitch_... oh my god..." The anger smolders over her expression, and her fingers knot around the doorknob.

"No no no wait... please." Sasuke pushes himself into the threshold between hallway and door, lodging himself there. "Please please please let me in, Sapphire. I need help..." His usually high and snarky tone lowers, softens. "And I think you're the only person who can help me. I've just... I've just been so scared all this time...

"Because you're so good, and I'm such an ass..."

Her lips purse, and in the cusp between slamming the door into him and stepping back, she asks, "Why are you such an ass?"

His crimson gaze weakens. "You really want to know? It's not a very entertaining tale."

Sapphire moves away from the entranceway, allowing him to hobble into her small, roomy chamber. As one of the warden elite rooms, there is enough space for Sapphire to decorate a little, make the place her own. To the left of the entrance, an open air kitchen beckons, and Sasuke's stomach rumbles just peeking into it. Tucked behind the kitchen, he catches the small dining table at the end of the hall, currently covered in spilled popcorn and a still-running laptop. He makes out one of those kiddish animated movies playing on it.

Glancing Sapphire's way, he proffers a sly little grin. She shoves him on ahead. "Oh, go on. Make fun of my taste." She's got colorful definitely-anime posters up on her walls, something about a moving castle, something else about a porco pig guy. They're hung tastefully about the room and interspersed with small decorative details, a mid-size plush couch up against the dining table, a television atop a bookshelf full of movies and novels and comic books, velvet pillows with quotes Sasuke doesn't know the references to.

He glances once at her, then at her room. "It's nice," he whispers, and her face goes pink.

"Um..." She can't quite look at him, fidgeting with her hair, staring into the kitchen. "Are... you hungry? You s-sounded hungry. Let me, um, let me make you something."

"Oh, uh... If that's okay."

She directs him to the couch and plops him down on it, promptly shutting her laptop in the process. Sasuke glimpses stickers all over it, vivosaurs and little goofy ghosts and sapphire gems. She's...

He stares at all these things that prove to him how different they are, and something about it makes his heart ache, makes him want to reach out and take her into his stupid broken embrace. Makes him wish he was better. Better for her.

His smirk falters. "I didn't realize you were such a nerd, Sapphire." He giggles to himself like this is such a great joke as he stretches on the cerulean couch, clutching the pillow that reads "Let's make each other weak" on it in heavy cursive. He has no idea where it's from, but he decides that he is sort of into it.

"Yeah, well, I'm not having sex with hot women in my free time, so I've got to do _some_thing with myself." He watches her as she moves about in her kitchen through a couple open windows between the rooms. She's in a nightgown, blue with speckled stars on it, and it swishes about her curvaceous form as she dances seamlessly from fridge to island to sink.

While she works on whatever it is she's making, she reminds him, "I want to hear your story now, Sasuke. Why did you turn out the way you are when Hanzo's a total goody-goody role model?"

"Hey," the white-haired ninja scoffs, "Hanzo's not _that_ good. He's just quieter than me. Better at pretending to look the part. He doesn't listen to Stryker any better than the rest of us. Honestly, he's got that guy wrapped around his fucking finger." He releases a sharp breath, glaring into the powdery blue walls surrounding him. "But yeah, I guess he's... well, he's not involved in the shadier side of wardens' power, so he does sort of have that on me."

Sapphire snorts. "Yeah. I was gonna say, who's the one who got caught in a mafia plot that nearly ended his life, Sasuke? Don't think that was your cousin." She's humming as she works, between her snide comments, and he closes his eyes to focus on her.

"Yeah, okay." Sasuke swallows the pain in his throat, threatening to spill out. "It's... well. You know how Hanzo and I ran away from my parents when we were young to become ninjas. Fucking... Hanzo found it in an ad, Old Dojo Man Looking For New Ninja Babies, and we were like, sure, why not. My parents are way too self-absorbed to get anything right about raising children, but at least Hanzo's were smart enough to drop him and Torner off on our front step when they came to the conclusion that they were too drunk and irresponsible for it. Ugh... mine are like, the next rung higher on the Bad Parenting Ladder." He can't really remember his parents' faces. Just the fleeting notion of packing his small backpack with the necessities: his old teddy vivosaur—this ugly little spinax he still kept somewhere in his own warden-issued room, a tooth brush (forgot the tooth paste), a comb, and a photograph of his little sister.

Hanzo packed a little smarter, but, whatever. What mattered was their escape. Two thirteen-year-old babies on the run to join their to-be sensei's dojo.

"So we found Sensei, and he took us both in. For a while, he had other students, but eventually it was just us and him. He was... Sapphire, he was really cool. Better than my parents. Better than anyone I'd ever really known in all my life. But then he... he kept getting weaker. Eventually he stopped teaching us arts and straight told us stories, about his past, how things were, whatever it was he had left to give us.

"I remember this one really well. It was about a lotus pond, and these flowers, and how this kid stole all the fucking flowers in the pond like a little bitch. He tried to sell them, but the flowers started to die before he could sell many of them. Yeah, uh." Fuck. His face heats. "That one was my favorite. But uh, anyways... Then Sensei..."

He sighs, stuffing his face into Sapphire's pillow. "Sensei fucking died."

Sapphire mimics his sigh, but quietly asks, "Didn't you know he would die eventually? He sounded like an old dude when you met him."

"W-Well, _yeah_, but... that doesn't mean I was ready for it. I didn't...

"I think that's what really fucked me up, watching the guy who'd become my father die. He meant... I mean he really meant everything to me. Without him, Hanzo and I didn't really have anywhere to go. We closed up the dojo and somehow ended up in the Warden Administration. I guess Hanzo found an ad for that too somewhere. It was easy work, getting in, since we were badass ninjas and all, but...

"I don't know. I feel like it's been all this time, and I still haven't really moved on. I don't really know what I want. I keep trying to use things to fill up this... hole inside of me... but nothing lasts. I tried women, I tried sex. Sure felt good, but the feeling didn't last. I've been trying money lately, money and nice things to buy with money, but it seems like I'm just gonna kill myself if I keep going down that pathway."

He groans into himself, slumping against the table. "Now both of my wrists are _broken_."

She snorts. His lip upturns, hiding beneath the pillow.

Quiet for a little while. Then Sapphire's gentle footfalls, then the clink of a plate in front of him. The sweet, hot smell of eggs awakens him enough to gratefully take her fork and launch into the pile of fluffy yellow tasteless yum.

Then the fork falls out of his broken wrist's hand. "_Fuck_," he mutters, his arm aching, sending reverberations through his very core. With no other options, he decides to plow into the food with just his mouth.

Sapphire makes a face, then pushes him over on the couch to make room for herself. Watching him inhale his food, she smirks. "You're just like Torner. What is it with the both of you and your eggs?"

"I dunno," he manages, mouth full of mashed yellow. "Fucking good though."

Quietly she adds, "That fork was for me. I was going to help you eat, um..." She looks away, flushing. "But I guess you don't need the help."

Sasuke spots the glass of water by the plate and reaches for it, then flinches before he's even touched the cup. "I uh. I might need some here. I really don't wanna break your nice cup." It's a mug with this little pink shanshan on it, and Sasuke will never forgive himself if he breaks it.

"O-Okay. Well. Uh..."

She takes it in her long, pale hands. Her nails are well-rounded and pink, uncolored. Turning to face Sasuke, she slowly raises the cup to his lips, and, releasing a grateful breath, he drinks.

Their eyes meet over the cup. Sapphire burns red, but she cannot break away from the alluring man in front of her. She still remembers when he entered the Warden Administration one morning after yelling the crassest thing to his ninja cousin. What he said now eludes her, however many years ago it was, but she'd doubled over and laughed, the hardest she'd laughed in so long.

Then she recalls her promise with her sister and a wince shatters across her once-peaceful face, once wide and staring into him, now facing away.

She lowers the empty cup and places it on the table, her forlorn eyes at the ground.

"Sapphire." She begins to look toward him, but she doesn't quite make it there. "I... wanted to ask. Why is it that every time I start to feel a little closer to you, you... turn back like that?"

Her hands fold together in front of her. She tilts her head so that her bangs obscure her face. So that he can't truly see her. "Well... Ruby and I made a promise not to date boys that we both liked. It's always... always been that way. But it seems like we have the same taste, because whenever I mention someone, she scoffs at me and says I can't go after him... as it wouldn't be fair to her.

"K-Kind of funny for her to say... when she's had loads of boyfriends. We agreed that if the boy showed interest in one of us, it would be okay to go after him—because _he_ chose and he just happened to choose one of us over the other. But—Hah... nobody ever goes for me. I'm a silly introverted nerd who spends her time indoors, not out in public, playing, flirting, dancing...

"A-And, well, anyways, Ruby already tried to ask you out, s-s-so I suppose it's been my turn for awhile now, but...

She swallows, hard. "What happens when you say no? Or—What happens if you say yes and it turns out you hate me? Sasuke, I..." She raises her head to face him, and his heart aches at the sight of her distraught, darkened gaze. "I'm still a virgin, y-you know. I haven't even kissed anyone before. And I mean that. Nobody. Not a soul..." She takes in a breath that shudders down her throat. Sasuke reaches out, but his hands fall before her, afraid to touch and then break her. "I'm... I'm about as inexperienced as you can get. You're obviously way out of my league and belong with somebody like Ruby, somebody obnoxious with huge boobs. Somebody you can have fun with. I'm not..." She squeezes a pained laugh through her weak lungs. "I'm not all that fun. I stay home and watch movies and read. I don't go out much, and when I do, it's oftentimes in my pajamas.

"I mean you're..." Her gaze falters, and she whispers, giggling weakly, "you're also an ass, so maybe it's for the best..."

His cast gets in the way when his fingers raise to touch her cheek. Pink spills out over her face, but she doesn't move away, just stands perfectly still and lets him stroke her skin.

"You know, Sapphire, your boobs are pretty huge too."

Her mouth opens in a wheeze—

"WAIT FUCK I SHOULDN'T HAVE SAID THAT—FUCK FUCK _FUCK_..." He just about works up the nerve to take his hand away, but then her fingers crisscross over his cast and hold it there between the laughter that shakes her warm body.

"What in the world made you think _that_ was appropriate?" she asks, rolling her eyes.

Sasuke's mortified face burns with the heat of a million suns. "I uh. I don't know. I guess just force of habit. I'm still, I... I mean y-y-you're right, I'm still an ass. That's usually the kind of shit I tell the girls I would see in the past, but... Ugh, you don't deserve that. I'm fucking sorry. Let me—Let me try again."

She gives him a wordless nod, her eyes streaming, mouth struggling into a tiny, affectionate little smile. "I will say, you said that in such a nice tone that it almost felt like a compliment. Please keep in mind however that boob size does not make nor break a woman. Also never say that again or I will punch you literally as hard as I can."

The ninja manages a weak, self-conscious laugh. "Y-Yeah... honestly, please _do_ punch me if I do say something like that again. I'm gonna... need your help, if I wanna learn how to stop being such a dickhead." It begins to sink in, that she's not making him leave, that she's okay with the fact that he's an idiot, and his heart swells.

He shakes himself, and then he starts anew. "Sapphire, I don't know why the hell you never got asked on a date before, because you're a real—okay, get this—you're a real _gem_." She snorts, but she can't quite keep back the smile that threatens to overwhelm her. "S-Seriously though. You're... I mean, okay. Yes. You're hot. I am not going to deny that you are hot, because that would be a little too hard for me to ignore. But like... Like, your sister is kind of hot too, but I could never get into her. Maybe because she's always around you and is just _absolutely_ not as cool as you are. She's like... like the other girls I've been with.

"The other girls... I just dated them solely on the premise that they were hot. You... Sapphire, you're..." He leans closer, and she lets him, doesn't stop him when their foreheads bump and his deep voice spills onto her. "You're smart. So smart. You somehow managed to pass the Warden Exam on your own, which we all know is a total fucking scam. You're... nicer than anyone I know. You're giving me more chances than I probably deserve, more chances than... well... than I've ever been given before. I don't know why you bother with me, since you're clearly so much better than me, but I... I really want this. I really want... you.

He adds in a weak chuckle. "Not that I expect you to want me back."

He gasps at the touch of her fingers caressing his cheek. "But... Sasuke, maybe I am just a little bit attracted to the ass right in front of me. Maybe he's shitty and an idiot, but... he's strong." She leans into him, her chin digging into his shoulder, and his arms encircle her back. He has to be very careful with the way he hugs her as to not aggravate his incapable wrists. "You're... strong, Sasuke. And you're self-aware. You know who you are, what you're doing... you're just lost, it sounds like. I don't...

"Don't expect me to be_ fix_ing anything about you. I hate that term. I'm not... I'm not trying to 'fix' you. But I... I do like you, I do want to be with you... despite your numerous faults."

He chuckles into her ear. She closes her eyes and nuzzles against him, as his heart thuds in his chest, convincing him that this is real, that he really can hold her and she won't disappear. "Don't... worry about trying to fix me. I want to be better. Nicer. Someone who can deserve you. I don't... I don't think I do yet, but I'll keep working at it, and I hope one day you'll let me be your boyfriend."

"Heh..." Her hands slide around his back and tug him close. It's... warm—Sure, not as warm as some of the things he'd done with other girls, girls who were ready on day one to take him places Sapphire knows absolutely nothing about, but somehow just having her here with him makes him relax, lets him close his eyes, and forget, for a moment, that he's broken himself in more places than each wrist.

She smells like... something sweet, soft, natural. Not perfume... but herself.

His heart catches.

Carefully his fingers find her head. He tilts her back, gazing into her shining blue gaze, then leans in close and—

"W-Wait wait _wait_ _please stop_!"

Immediately he drops his hands. "I'm—sorry—Saph I didn't mean to—"

He watches her form a small gap of distance between them, her head clutched in her hands, her breaths rapid, forceful, afraid. "I'm... I'm not ready for that. I'm... s-sorry, Sasuke, but I'm n-not..."

"No it's..." Gently he takes her around her shoulders. She lets him embrace her. With their chests pressed together, he feels her heart pounding deep inside and silently curses his own impatience. "It's perfectly okay, Sapphire. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I wasn't... thinking about you. I—Fuck. That's what I'm saying. I need to work on my shitty self before I can...

Wincing, he whispers into her shoulder, "I'm so sorry..."

She releases a slow, pained breath. "It's... It's okay. Please... next time, wait for me, though. Ask me if it's okay before you try it. It might seem like it's no big deal, but it... but it might be to me."

"Okay," he murmurs, the concern overcoming his snarky facade, "okay. I will."

He listens to the ease in her chest and sighs, an incredible relief washing over him.

She sighs. "Don't... um. You don't have to go. You can stay here while you wait for your wrists to heal. We'll..." Releasing him, she pulls back to face him, to meet his stupid idiot face head on. "We'll figure this out together, okay? You're not... alone in all this anymore. I'm... I'm here for you."

Closing his eyes, he forcefully nods, then plows his head into her—_shoulder_, not chest. That would probably scare the shit out of her. See... okay. He's learning. He can do this.

He's not going to ruin this. Swallowing, tightening his grip on the one girl who truly matters, he whispers, "You're really not like the others, you know that?"

She barks a laugh. "Don't say that, Sasuke. All women are valid in their own right. And either way, of _course_ I'm not like others. Everyone's a little different."

"Fuck. That's not..." Whimpering into her, he mutters, "I was trying to be _nice_..." He sighs. "What do I say instead?"

"You... uh..." She pauses. "Hmmm. Maybe, I really appreciate this about you? It gets a similar message across, that I'm doing something for you that you don't see as much in others—hence why you appreciate it in me. Like... here."

Her fingers curl around his chin and tilt his head close to hers. She whispers, her voice low and mesmerizing, "I appreciate your willingness to be patient with me. I know that it's hard for you, since you've only ever been with people whose speeds match yours... so, thank you, for going at the pace that I need to go at."

His cheeks smolder. His lips betray him, tugging into a smile that he did not intend to make. "I... w-wow, that's probably the nicest thing anyone's ever said about me." Shaking himself, he thinks a long moment, then says, "Well, Saph, I... appreciate your patience too. There's not a lot of people who'd be okay with putting up with all the stupid things I say and give me the chance to retry."

"Heh. However long it takes." She nuzzles against him, whispering, "Besides, your bad answers are funny."

He hides his smile into her body, holding her tightly, willing never to truly let go of her in the depths of his soul.


End file.
